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tv   Geraldo at Large  FOX News  August 29, 2010 4:00am-5:00am EDT

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you for watching. good night. >> geraldo: live and at large, it was huge. love glenn beck or hate him there is no denying that the fox news host accomplished something extraordinary today in washington, d.c. on a hot august afternoon he summoned like minded conservatives to the nation's capitol and despite the doubts and criticism and even fears of violence a last and peaceful crowd showed up and numbered in the low hundreds of thousands and despite the avowedly nonpolitical nature of occasion and whether or not they identify with the tea parties kortright wing of the political party or choose to align themselves with mr. beck they feel part of what is now the
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most potent political force in the country. welcome to this special edition of the program. i'm geraldo rivera. over the course of the next hour you will see large portions of an event that for various reasons was i think as underreported today as it was underestimated earlier. here is what is probably the largest private march since the million man march on washington. >> hello, america! i have just gotten word from the media that there is over a thousand people here today. we are humbled that you are here. we are truly humbled. itth really is build it and they will come.
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[ cheers and applause ] >> something that is beyond man is happening. america today begins to turn back to god. [ cheers and applause ] for too long this country has wandered in darkness and we have wandered in darkness in periods from the beginning. we have had moments of brillance and moments of darkness. but this country has spent far too long worried about scars and thinking about the scars and concentrating on the scars. today we are going to concentrate on the good things in america, the things that we have accomplished and the things that we can do tomorrow. >> geraldo: he laughed. he cried but his tone was relentlessly upbeat.
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heavily religious, patriotic. invoking everyone from moses to jesus to george, washington, and the crowd could not have been more dig anified, polite or engaged. in anger and racism and no over the political part sanship. if there was a downside it was only in what seemed to be his effort to be politically incorrect. putting on crab buy rabbis to n chiefs to martin luther king's nuce. >> tniece. >> to focus on honor and on the content of our character and not the color of our skin. god bless you, glenn. >> geraldo: this dr. king joins us live for the entire hour tonight from atlanta. so, why did you go to this rally despite all of the
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criticism from people generally regarded in the martin luther king side of the political equation, why go to something that your uncle probably would not have -- well, i don't know. i'm not putting words in your mouth. why did you go? >> geraldo, i was talking to my mother, mrs. naomi king, the widow of my dad, uncle martin's brother and i said mom, i didn't get to go. she says well, i was there with your dad and it was wonderful. and i said well, i'm going this time and as we were talking about it, i considered it to be a great honor to stand at the lincoln memorial on the anniversary of the time that my uncle delivered that speech and so when the invitation came and glenn assured me that it would not be political but that we would be talking about faith, hope, love and honor and those are principles that my family has always stood for, i just thought i should go.
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>> geraldo: we will be with you for the rest of the hour. before we hear much more from this doctor king there was a smaller but no less sincere or impassioned rally in the nation's capital. not a rally but a march put together by a man i have long regarded as our nation's preeminent and most effective civil rights leader the reverend al sharpton. the march started at washington's dunbar high school. >> when we announced this gathering they said to me why go to school because we must close education gaps. then later they told me that others are going to be at the mall and they are going to be standing where dr. king stood. well, they may have the malibu we have the message. they may have the platform but we have the dream.
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>> geraldo: reverend al is back from washington and joins us for the hour in our new york studio. congratulations. i think it was brilliant that you went and started late. how do you think your side performed today compared to -- well, you don't have to compare to beck. how did you do? >> i think we did two different things. what mr. beck did was a rally on values and a motivational speaker and as dr. king said, talked about what he wanted to talk about in terms of honor and all. we had a civil rights commemoration because dr. king's speech was at a civil rights rally and civil rights gathering in '63. i think it was two different things. i note that mr. beck did not talk about civil rights. he did not follow the claim he had said that he was going to reclaim the civil rights movement so i think it was fine. >> geraldo: i think there was human rights in what he said. he was spiritual.
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almost like an evangelical preacher. >> and there is no way i would oppose any one being evangelical. i said i disagreed with if he said he was reclaiming the civil rights movement. he did not say that today. we said that we wanted to raise the civil rights issues because that is what the day meant and that is what we did. >> geraldo: we will talk more with reverend sharpton. i want to get his take on whether or not beck hijacked or that was the allegation earlier. he suggested that his choice of this day, that place, the 47th anniversary one of the most significant speeches ever was serendipitous. he did bend over backwards to be unoffensive, positive and upbeat. >> we have a choice today to either let those scars crush us
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or redeem us. we are gathered here today in a hallowed spot, here abraham lincoln, a giant of an american casting a shadow on all of us. we look to a giant for answer. behind you, in front of me, the washington monument alone, tall, straight, if you look at the washington monument, you might notice its scars. but nobody talks about that. nobody says look to it now, nobody says yeah, i don't know but a quarter of the way up it changes color. did you know that it did? look at it. look at its scars. how did the scar get there?
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they stopped building it in the civil war. and when the war was over they began again. no one sees the scars of the washington memorial, the washington monument. we see what is stands for. america is at a cross roads and there is a clear and simple choice. do we choose to just look at the scars? do we choose to look back? or do we do whateverry great generation has done in america in times of trouble, look ahead. dream about what we are going to become not worried about what we are. look forward. look west. look to the heavens. look to god. and make your choice. >> geraldo: for all of beck's soaring spiritual rhetoric, obviously the press, the mainstream press and a legion
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of critics all skewering my fox news colleague for being presumptious and even almost disrespectful of the march years ago. >> just because you got the spot don't mean you are standing up to the dream. if you understood dreaming you can dream anywhere. we don't have to be at the spot. all we need to be is who we are. we can dream. >> jail cells. we can dream from hospital beds. we can dream whereever we are! but while they are down there, they ought to ask abe lincoln to tell them why he fought against states rights and held the union together. they ought to read dr. king's speech and then they need to talk to some of us who came up the rough side of the mountain.
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those that made it against all odds. that is why we marching. >> geraldo: we will have more from washington this evening. craig is down there working hard to put together as objective account as possible on just so many people really showed up at beck's rally. who they are, how exactly did a talk show host gather such a vast crowd and in the process make a powerful potential presidential candidate seem almost like an opening act. >> and behind me, the towering presence of the great emancipator and over these grounds where we are so honored to stand today, we feel the spirit of dr. martin luther king, jr. he who on this very day two score and seven years ago gave voice to a dream that would challenge us to honor the sacred charters of our liberty that all men are created equal.
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they fought for freedom at bunker hill. they fought for its survival at gettysburg. it is humble to get to be here today with you patriots. you who are motivated and engaged and concerned, knowing to never retreat. i have been asked to speak today not as a politician, no, something much more. i have been asked to speak as the mother of a soldier. say what you want to say about me but i raised a combat vet and you can't take that away from me. >> geraldo: former governor sarah palin, the popular champion of the tea party movement appearing at glenn beck's restoring honor rally in d.c. coming off his most recent triumph playing perhaps the decisive role.
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before i get into the chatter of a palin beck presidential ticket. a few words about the special operations warrior foundation which is the beneficiary of the enormous amount of money raised around the event. however, you might feel about what some say is beck's hijacking of the king legacy the event raised a lot of dough for the foundation which provides a college education to every child who lost a parent while serving in special ops and part of governor palin's intentionally downsized role today was introducing several surviving heros to the big crowd. >> my fellow americans, each one of these men here today faced terrible sufferings, overwhelming setbacks and in possible odds and they endured and their stories are america's stories. we will always come through. we will never give up and we shall endure. because we live by that moral strength that we call grace.
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look around you. you are not alone. you are americans. [ cheers and applause ] you have the same moral courage of washington and lincoln and martin luther king. it is in you it will sustain you as it sustained them. so with pride in the red, white and blue, with gratitude to our men and women in uniform, let's stand together, let's stand with honor, let's restore america! god bless you and god bless america! >> geraldo: continuing with the reverend al sharpton and the niece of martin luther king, jr. i thought that beck was the dominant force there and the dominant personality and i have never seen sarah palin take a
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second -- i was going to say second banana, it wasn't that but a supporting role. >> i didn't see the whole rally because we were marching. i have only seen clips but i think that beck came out and did the evangelist. i think for whatever reasons he did not do what he advertised. >> geraldo: he wasn't a politician. >> he did not talk about -- >> geraldo: is that a bad thing? >> i said he didn't do what he advertised. i didn't say he was going to try and reclaim civil rights. he said it. i mean you have got to take -- he said that he was going to reclaim civil rights today. he didn't even mention civil rights today. so i think that what upstaged palin was the fact that he did not go where he had said he was going to go in his own radio shows and his own promotion and i think that the problem is going to be when has to get specific. >> geraldo: you mean if he runs for office? >> if he runs for office or
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even if he answers when says great a rhetorical flourish we god wants us to go. then answer the question. >> geraldo: i will come back to you, dr. king after the next break. one thing everybody agrees about is the peacefulness of the dual events. >> somebody said that there going to be trouble today. ain't no trouble. we wouldn't disgrace today by allowing you to provoke us. this ain't about them. this is about dr. king! hamer. about sandy lou hall of we are going to walk together, black, white, latino, asian, straight, gay. it don't matter. those that bleed in the dream we are going to walk together and we are going to keep marching! úñ
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our costs went up dramatically. short $600,000 to meet our goal. we were at $3.1 million and i for the first time started to challenge him a little bit and i was on the plane and i will never forget sitting next to my wife i looked up at the top of that airplane and i said lord we don't have anything else left. we don't have anything else left. it's up to you now. in two days without saying a word to any one, $600,000 came in. i am proud to announce thanks
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to you as of right now and the money is still coming in we have raised $5.5 million. >> geraldo: $5.5 million for college education for special operators killed in action or in training, continuing for the reverend al sharpton and with dr. alveta king. it must make it easier for you the fact that $5.5 million and probably more than is going to this extremely worthy cause. >> well, you know, i was listening to reverend sharpton and to you and it is a wonderful thing that america has responded to the needs of these wonderful families. but you know, there is a phenomenal experience called the damascus road experience and starts with an old rugged cross and you may find yourself going one way and glenn's case the political route, and then you end up shaken up and
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awakened and then you are on the high road and as i was there today and i watched there and heard about his own statements about having to trust god for even the money to cover the costs, and to bless these wonderful families, i watched that and i was just absolutely amazed that it is not inside a church and it is not a preacher, but this is happening in america, faith hope and love and honor. just being restored. and i was just so very excited about that. me having been a part of the civil rights movement and i still am today. but to stand there at that monument and to watch these things it was just absolutely phenomenal for me. >> geraldo: the fund raising aspect of it, you must be impressed. >> i think that is good. i mean you got to remember, those that have been -- those that have been critical are not critical at all of supporting families of veterans. there were veterans that marched with us. no one is talking about faith,
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hope and charity. we disagree on the civil rights points of view that he expressed. he didn't express them today. so i think that the real news is that what he said he went the total opposite way at least today. >> geraldo: you made that -- >> but geraldo, right now. >> geraldo: let dr. king respond. >> hello, glenn perhaps did not speak as adamantly as i did about having a dream that white privileged would become human privilege, that that check that my uncle called marked insufficient funds would finally be a good check. i have a dream and it is in my dream so i can't hijack the dream because i'm a blood relative to the dream. and so civil rights was definitely addressed but reverend sharpton listening to everything you said, it was addressed with you and i flew home on the same plane as my cousin martin and i said my
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goodness, this is just something, this is something to behold. >> martin spoke for us today and did a great job. >> geraldo: we will talk about that much more and bring in other points of view as the
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four all the latest headlines, go to fox news.com. why do i believe in the dream? internationally i have seen it happen. there was a powerful man named winston churchill. churchill one day heard about one of the colonies rebelling and he had 150,000 of tribesmen put into an incarcerated area but we lived through that area and kept on dreaming. and that tribesmen that was in this bondage son is now a president of the united states. >> it is not just a country. it is an idea that man can rule
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himself. that is the american experiment. we have a choice to make today. do we, americans that live today, surrounded by giants who gave it all, do we today say the experiment cannot work? man must be ruled by someone? it does not end here. it shall not end now. it shall not end in my generation, in your generation, it is up to us. >> geraldo: so how big was it? the restore honor rally
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impressively staged today by fox's glenn beck we care because in politics as in love size counts. here is craig. >> geraldo, the organizers of glenn beck's restoring honor rally are claiming an overwhelming success estimating as many as 500,000 attended the rally held today on the steps of the lincoln memorial but how would they know how many showed up and what is the significance of the numbers? in this town, the crowd size does matter. >> i was with bill o'reilly last night and he said i think and he was serious, he said i think you will have 15 to 20,000 people there. he said i tell you what, if you have over 100,000 or 200,000 you need to anchor the 8:00 p.m. show. he said you do the o'reilly factor. >> depending on who is doing the estimating if it was a real bet, o'reilly may have jokingly for fitted his show to beck. >> i heard the media estimates
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on the crowd size. the first one was there is tens of thousands of people here. i think the latest i heard were two. i heard over 300,000 and i heard over 500,000. >> god may be the only one who does know for hour but while estimates range from as low as 60,000 to as high as 2 million, it seems clear that beck at least climbed into the high-five or even low six figures as crowds lined both sides of the lincoln monument are its adjacent reflecting pond, overflowing to adjacent streets. >> they said to me glenn, what happens if nobody comes? my response was we'll stand where the lord wants us to
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stand and he'll provide the people if it's what is supposed to happen. >> but why no official count? blame reaction to estimates for the 1,995,000,000 man march an historic rally for racial pride and equality. following that event, park police estimated a crowd of only 400,000. as a result, organizers threatened to sue. the controversy caused congress to order, washington, officials to get out of the tricky business of estimating crowd sizes. >> the time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit. >> using aerial photos, crowd concentrations, estimates of density and archival footage of the 1965 johnson and '93 clinton inaugurals, the park service did make one exception to the new rule. both d.c. officials and the washington post estimating just fewer than 2 million for
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president obama's historic inauguration. of course, that number is also now hotly contested. >> i have a new dream. >> putting size aside, history will judge will today's impressive events compares to the speech most agree is among the greatest ever spoken. >> i have a dream. >> geraldo, it was predominantly a white crowd, out of towners who follow beck and learned about the rally from one of his broadcast outlets on radio, television and even the internet. a lot wore patriotic garb and carried american flags. organizers urged no political posters but there were a number of those don't tread on me flags used by the tea party. >> craig, thanks. next time i want you to count their legs and then divide by two. i think that is the best way to do it. >> i'll try that. >> geraldo: okay. remember, folks, when the tea
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party knucklehead mark williams got fired for his crude attempt at being sarcastic? another this time largely unknown tea party blogger did it this week while warning today's overwhelmingly let's say it was a white crowd. that washington is unsafe for the crowd with the arab or african cab drivers. a is a teariccal map. a clumsy attempt at satire. all the city is marked unsafe except for the tiny blue sliver of the national mall. it came when someone mistakenly assumed it was put out by beck rally organizers which it was not. broadening our panel now with reverend al sharpton and dr. alvetta king, i'm pleased to welcome melanie campbell. she is in new orleans tonight but was at the rally. and republican strategist
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noelle in her base and kimberly guilfoyle who i would like to ask whether king's estate has any copyright or any other legal right to any one else using king's words or images or archival footage for their own purposes. >> they do own the rights. >> they do own the rights. >> they do own the rights. there has been litigation this this regard. they have the copyright to it if someone would like to purchase use to use the speech in its entirety or his likeness they have to have permission and pay for it. if you going to use a quote or except that is okay. it is if you are using large portions or sections and using it like commercial misappropriation. >> geraldo: regardless of how angry any one might have been at beck they could not legally have prevented him from in some people's words hijacked in other peeples words honoring. >> he said i have a new dream.
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for example, is that -- he is using that he is taking obviously the idea of what martin luther king did and making it kind of his own. they are not going be able to prevail in that particular instance. >> geraldo: noelle, what do you think of beck's i think extremely smooth professional flawless delivery today? he hit just the right tone it seemed to me. and was extremely impressive and i -- you know, i can't say -- i agree with al sharpton a lot more than i agree with glenn beck but i think he did an amazing job today. what do you think? >> i think he empowered americans. i mean think about it. you know what i really recent is why that the other side is taking a negative spin on this. he did this sincerely. he did it authentically. this is what he felt new hampshire islamists heart to do this rally and i think dr. king would praise this. this is why the troops are fighting. for our freedom.
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>> geraldo: and melanie campbell, isn't noelle right? i mean wouldn't dr. king applaud the tone of glenn beck's rally? >> i couldn't speak for dr. king but i can say this, what we were doing today with the reclaim the dream march was celebrating our history, celebrating the legacy of the civil rights movement. it wasn't us against them. it was about we the people so all of us have the opportunity as americans to express ourselves. today, you know, i'm a joshua generation baby. i come out of a generation who benefited from what happened 47 years ago. >> geraldo: which joshua is that? >> joshua generation, you say the moses generation or the people who were there like dr. joseph lawrie and those of us. >> geraldo: you look much younger than that,. >> i'm post civil rights. at heart always.
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i'm a smalltown girl. >> geraldo: i got you. >> so, you know, from florida. for us today and for me i know i benefited and i was blessed in my life to know coretta scott king and be able to be meantorred by joseph lowry and evelyn lowry. >> geraldo: every time you use the lines of the civil rights movement i'm awed. my dream was like the intercontinental railroad that the east coast and west coast would meet at the golden spike and shake hands. why didn't you offer beck a blending of these, why didn't you go with him -- >> i think you and others keep missing the point. the criticism of beck was when beck was saying he was going to redo civil rights. beck was saying president obama was a racist. beck was saying all these things. he didn't say that today. the real risk he is running. >> -- exactly. >> is his followers may turn on him now and think today what he
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said was beck diluting and acquiescing to what we were raising. that is the risk he runs. you are surprised because beck didn't do what he said. don't say we were critical of what he did. we were critical of what he would say he would do and he didn't do that. >> geraldo: i was surprised by the mainstream -- by the absolutely hardcore mainstream moderate proamerican message that i would like to hear every day rather than talk show chatter that is dividing us. i thought beck did a giant step towards lowering the anger. >> and the question is can he survive -- >> geraldo: how does this sound? a palin beck presidential ticket? they are talking about it and
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i came here last saturday, i wanted to spend some time with my children. i wanted to show them these great monuments. i went in to the lincoln memorial and i stood there and i read the gettysburg address on one wall and the second inaugural address on the other. i went up and touched the
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words. >> geraldo: perhaps it is because all of the dire predictions proved so wrong hey dread andand hey dread and violence at the rally, i don't think any one can deny that this guy hit a homerun today. and the blogo sphere, look it up. how much more compelling he seems with most run of the mill candidates. sarah palin was asked with a palin beck ticket. after she described this event as inspirational when she was asked the question about the presidential ticket she said "we like what we are doing now." kimberly, in terms of marketing, these are the two most attractive candidates in the -- >> rock stars. >> geraldo: in the conservative world, i think. >> geraldo: not that i want
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beck to quit his job. >> you want his spot, right. >> geraldo: i got a job. >> i odden be surprised. at this point it wouldn't surprise me. she is going to say we like the job and we like what we are doing. a magnetic charismatic team and they have the rock star quality. >> geraldo: and we heard the reverend al scoff at the notion that he can be a politician because he has to take a position on issues. he has to on his show. what do you think of him as a politician and particularly the intriguing pairing of him with governor palin? >> absolutely not. i would almost bet my career that beck and palin would never run. i think what they will do -- >> geraldo: palin either? >> i don't think palin will either. i look for this team to be one of our number one fundraisers for the conservative movement, the republican party. they know how to motivate and these two know how to raise funds.
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and that is one thing that we need. and they have a great way to get their message out. people listen to them and they respect them and they -- >> geraldo: are you saying essentially that the tea party's two most attractive magnetic figures are barred from actually seeking office? >> they are not going to do it. why would they do it? they are good at what they are doing. sarah palin had a point. she is good at what she is doing. why quit. she is actually stepping aside and probably not going to run so that she can actually help build our party into something great and help nominate someone else. >> get the the message out of what? they did not give a political or social message. >> geraldo: you don't think they hinted that -- >> al sharpton they didn't -- >> geraldo: okay, make the point. >> let me make a proposition. why don't you, you are here on fox. invite mr. beck on the show to finish his speech. he said we should all come together equal. >> geraldo: i'm kind of scary of interrogating. >> how would we do that.
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unemployment disproportionate. when we have education disproportionate. how do we do that. >> geraldo: fair enough. i'm not going to lose reverend al's point. i want to invite them both on i want to invite them both on the
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we must look inside of our service. like 9/11. 9/11 woke us up and we stood shoulder to shoulder for a very short period of time. politics didn't matter. color didn't matter. it didn't matter if you were poor or you were rich. we were americans together. beyond that, we were god's human creation standing together.
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but fear only wakes you up for a very short time. i know that many in this country think that i'm a fear monger. so we can learn interest the lessons -- from the lessons all of the bad things that we have done. know them so we never repeat the same mistake. >> geraldo: do you think glenn beck is a fear monger? >> do i think he is a fear monger? i'm not a glenn beck watcher but i know that i have seen some of the things that his tone and how he speaks and some of the things that he says i don't agree with. so for us, today again like i spoke earlier what we were doing today was reclaiming the dream of our torrey, of the history of the civil rights movement. the 1963 march. not just for african americans
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but for all americans and we were out there celebrating. there were young people who marched to the march and black folks, white folks, young, old, rich and poor out there today. and i think the good thing about today is that everyone was in a positive frame. i meant people on the -- >> geraldo: that goes for both sides, i agree. you must be proud of a group that has been if it were tea party people there and it seems likely that it was they comported themselves in a way so counter to the stereo type it must give you some positive vibe. >> well, absolutely. and in the words of sarah betcha.ou bet cha. i think that glenn beck believes this in his heart. >> he does believe it. you met him here. he is a nice man and 100% believes in what he is saying and i think he is just getting started. >> geraldo: but on that
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point -- >> he made a great statement. >> geraldo: and his visions. >> hello, hello. >> he made a great statement. >> i wanted to stay something, too. okay, i will get to you. >> we call came together. all americans. all races. all religions. therefore, mr. beck will you say people should start fighting the mosque. that is where the rhetoric will hit the road. >> geraldo: you want him to say stop fighting the mosque. >> what he is saying therefore this is what we ought to be doing. >> geraldo: is that doctor king? >> and we are emphasizing that there is one human race. not all races getting together but one rue ma human race and g about rebuilding america and unity. a marvelous time. doing what my uncle martin said. we have to live together as brothers and sisters or perish and fools so we need to rebuild america and have unity to do
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that that. >> geraldo: thanks, everybody, you were fabulous. say goodbye with beck saying goodbye. roll the tape. >> we are a nation that has thanks to t venture card from capital one, we gedouble miles on every purchase. so wearned an l.a. getaway twice as fast. we get double miles every time we use oucard. no matter at we're buying. and since double miles add up quick... romans! get em! [ garth ] ...we can bring the whole gang. [ sheep bleats ] it's hard to beat double miles. whoa -- he's on the list. but we're with him. [ male announcer introducing the venture card from capital one with double miles on everyurchase every day. go to capitalone.com. [ indistinct shouting ]
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